States of co-existence and border projects in port cities: Genoa and Rotterdam compared

In port cities there is a tendency to dislocate production activities in favour of logistic-productive dynamics. In addition, the transition from an industrial area model to a \u2018logistics hinterland\u2019 formula shifts attention to a territorial scale, focusing on spaces at the border between the port and city areas. Today, port\u2013city borders are commonly perceived as barriers but they could be dynamic development thresholds. Existing port cities exhibit different states of coexistence at their port\u2013city borders: sometimes they are forced situations originating from poor management, but they can also provide opportunities for mutual interaction and synergy. This paper compares port\u2013 city borders in Genoa and Rotterdam using interviews, relevant literature and mapping. Conclusions are drawn concerning the possibilities and potential for future port\u2013city borders

Geospatial analysis and living urban geometry

This essay outlines how to incorporate morphological rules within the exigencies of our technological age. We propose using the current evolution of GIS (Geographical Information Systems) technologies beyond their original representational domain, towards predictive and dynamic spatial models that help in constructing the new discipline of "urban seeding". We condemn the high-rise tower block as an unsuitable typology for a living city, and propose to re-establish human-scale urban fabric that resembles the traditional city. Pedestrian presence, density, and movement all reveal that open space between modernist buildings is not urban at all, but neither is the open space found in today's sprawling suburbs. True urban space contains and encourages pedestrian interactions, and has to be designed and built according to specific rules. The opposition between traditional self-organized versus modernist planned cities challenges the very core of the urban planning discipline. Planning has to be re-framed from being a tool creating a fixed future to become a visionary adaptive tool of dynamic states in evolution

On the origin of spaces: morphometric foundations of urban form evolution

The modern discipline of urban morphology gives us a ground for the comparative analysis of cities, which increasingly includes specific quantitative elements. In this paper, we make a further step forward towards the definition of a general method for the classification of urban form. We draw from morphometrics and taxonomy in life sciences to propose such method, which we name ‘urban morphometrics’. We then test it on a unit of the urban landscape named ‘Sanctuary Area’ (SA), explored in 45 cities whose origins span four historic time periods: Historic (medieval), Industrial (19th century), New Towns (post-WWII, high-rise) and Sprawl (post-WWII, low-rise). We describe each SA through 207 physical dimensions and then use these to discover features that discriminate them among the four temporal groups. Nine dimensions emerge as sufficient to correctly classify 90% of the urban settings by their historic origins. These nine attributes largely identify an area's ‘visible identity’ as reflected by three characteristics: (1) block perimeterness, or the way buildings define the street-edge; (2) building coverage, or the way buildings cover the land and (3) regular plot coverage, or the extent to which blocks are made of plots that have main access from a street. Hierarchical cluster analysis utilising only the nine key variables nearly perfectly clusters each SA according to its historic origin; moreover, the resulting dendrogram shows, just after WWII, the first ‘bifurcation’ of urban history, with the emergence of the modern city as a new ‘species’ of urban form. With ‘urban morphometrics’ we hope to extend urban morphological research and contribute to understanding the way cities evolve

Ferrara città

Il contributo descrive lo stato della progettazione architettonica e urbana contemporanee a Ferrar

Il processo di costruzione della forma

L'articolo analizza il processo di costruzione formale di Hans Koolhoo

Dall’urbanistica prescrittiva all’urbanistica finanziaria. Sviluppi del progetto urbano al festival dell’architettura di Parma

L'articolo analizza l'influenza della cultura del real estate nel progetto urbano contemporane

Il paesaggio entra in città: il concorso per l’area del Navile

Il contributo presenta il progetto per l'area del Navile a Bologn

Una macchina scenica che celebra il movimento. Museo Mercedes Benz, Stoccarda, UN Studio

L'articolo presenta il progetto per il museo Mercedes Benz di UN Studio, dalla conteccualizzazione iniziale alla realizzazion

Costruire la città nella città: l’area ex-Manifattura Tabacchi

Il contributo descrive il concorso per l'area dell'Ex Manifattura Tabacchi a Bologn

Centro giovanile a Demminer Strasse, Berlino-Wedding

L'articolo presenta un centro giovanile di Hans Kollhoof a Berlin